i am stop
(or, Left-Handed Freewriting)
One day, sitting bored in one of my classes, I began to experiment. You see, I've always thought it would be interesting to see if I could train myself to write with my left hand as well as my right. While being ambidextrous might not be a particularly useful skill (well, it might come in handy now as my right hand is curled into a claw from all that sanding…), I've always though it would be neat. So, on a very narrow strip of paper, I began to freewrite with my left hand.
This, I found, yielded some interesting results. I needed to concentrate on shaping each letter, which meant that by the time I'd spelled out one word, or two, or three, my mind had already taken off in a completely different direction. This was my first left-handed freewrite:
i am stop
flashing go
brick drop brick
5:30 red blue
stop
I was entertained. Finding myself a slightly larger piece of paper, I wrote this:
waiting for minutes to pass
time of water and breath
wavering and uncertain, shock
the ending and freezing
drip, drip, drip
Though I admit to a certain frustration. Too many good lines flying past me as I struggled to shape the letter E! Still, a good distraction, and an even better way to fill some time when you only have a sliver of paper to work with.
